Gamblin Galkyd Mediums

Gamblin offers a great range of contemporary mediums. Using today’s safer materials, they recreate the properties of traditional mediums.

Galkyd Lite — Formulated to thin oil colors and maintain strong flexible paint films, with a viscosity similar to that of a traditional dammar/refined linseed oil/turpentine painting medium. It will leave brush strokes in thicker layers and allow a longer working time (approximately three hours). Glazes are slightly less glossy than those made with traditional mediums or Galkyd.

Galkyd Medium #1 — An alkyd resin painting medium that increases the fluidity of oil colors and speeds their drying time (thin layers will dry within 24 hours). Its viscosity is similar to traditional painting mediums made from linseed stand oil. It levels brush strokes, creates a strong flexible paint film, and leaves an enamel-like glossy finish.

Galkyd Slow Drying — Formulated for strength and flexibility, and to keep the surface of oil paintings open for approximately three days — a good choice for painters who blend or work wet into wet.

I use this medium to "oil in" my still life work after the first coat dries and I begin painting again. It remains fluid throughout that session and does not prolong the drying. The painting is dry overnight to begin again.

I really wanted to like Galkyd. Sadly, not so much. It does speed drying nicely, but it tends to set up in the bottle and then causes the brush to drag. Kind of like painting with Elmer's glue. Maybe adding thinner will help, but that further dilutes the ratio of pigment in the mix. I haven't tried that yet. I was a bit put off by Liquin's goofy bottle so I tried Galkyd. Liquin seems to maintain the right consistency longer in the bottle and goes on smoother. I guess I'll stay with Liquin.

I am a professional painter and teach as well. I recommend Galkyd to all my students for adding to oils and for creating a glaze that evens out all your colors and add brilliance by using a 50/50 mix of galkyd and gamsol...

I use product in a rather untraditional manner, blending it with pigment and Gamblin's Cold Wax & Galkyd in various consistencies for glazing. Works great, and I like that it is translucent as opposed to murky like the competitions.As they warn, if you are not going to use it rapidly decant it into smaller containers since once it is exposed to air (even that in a 1/2 full jar) it will harden. Happy painting!

I use this straight with dry pigments. It dries in hours. It does not discolor. Acrylic medium is milky and not transparent like this is. It allows the pigments to come through very brilliantly. It is great for layered painting techniques. You can wet an area with untinted medium and dab pigmented color in and get watercolor type effects. You can blend as you do with oil paint as it does not dry too fast like acrylics. It has the best qualities of all mediums in a single medium. Much cheaper overall than tube paints. Be careful to transfer unused medium left in once opened bottles to the frig though. A French's mustard dispenser works great to keep it from drying in the container, (its' only weakness in warm environments). That's also the reason not many manufacturers make tube paint versions..

Keep in mind that as I'm writing this, I'm just starting out with my grand experiments with drying agents in my painting process. Galkyd was recommended to me by a professor and on a whim -- and a desire for my drippy underpaintings to stop being an obstacle to faster productivity -- I purchased it along with a standard restocking order of oils. Thus far, I am extremely impressed! Galkyd dried my thin underpainting wash (which is usually heavily diluted with a mixture of Turpenoid and linseed oil) within 1.5 hours, speeding up my production time twofold! For a student who only gets 2.5 hour blocks of studio time per session, that time was invaluable.

Keep in mind, though: I haven't really tried out Liquin or other drying mediums, nor have I looked for Galkyd in my local art store. Also, for the unaware: Galkyd's fumes come with a kick! That being said, I am extremely happy with how this product performed and would definitely buy it again.

This is my favorite medium for glazing and thinning in general. better than most oils like linseed and i like it more than liquin. dries fast, add a couple drops of japan dryer to about a half cup of galkyd and it dries SUPER fast. (be careful not to breathe in the fumes of japan dryer!). fun to paint with, no loss of color, awesome finish.

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